Woodbury Avenue School to be Commemorated with Plaque
Woodbury Avenue School evoked fierce loyalty among the students, parents and teachers who made it such a magical place during its 48 years of service to the community. The school has been closed for more than four decades and is now a condominium complex, but it’s still hallowed ground for its devotees.
A historical plaque will be unveiled at the site of the former school on Saturday, June 14 at 1 p.m. at the intersection of Soundview and Woodbury Roads. The ceremony is expected to draw town and school district officials along with many Woodbury School alumni and even some former faculty members.
Former Woodbury Avenue School Principal Jack Whitney is expected to be among the attendees, along with Town Historian Robert Hughes, Huntington Superintendent James W. Polansky and members of the Huntington Town Board. Following the ceremony, an informal gathering of Woodbury School community members will be held at Finley’s of Green Street.
The plaque that will be unveiled on June 14 will permanently mark the site so those passing it will know where a very special school once stood there. Many of the Huntington School District’s most distinguished faculty members served at one time or another at Woodbury Avenue School.
For more information about the event, contact Brian Hansen, the Huntington School District’s School Heritage Museum curator at (631) 219-1229 or (631) 673-2048.
Old School Won’t Be Forgotten
Woodbury Avenue School closed for 43 years ago and was completely demolished in February 1988, but the old building will never be forgotten, having been immortalized by its alumni through an active website.
The alumni internet presence (www.woodburyavenue.org), allows for continuing testimonials and testifies to the fervent desire to preserve as much of Woodbury School’s history as possible.
Huntington was a growing community in the 1920’s and big families needed schools for their children. The district’s school buildings, including the Main Street School, which still stands today as the smaller of two structures comprising the current Town Hall complex, were filling up fast. The community had long prided itself on providing a quality public education to its young people and wanted to expand program offerings.
Huntington School District voters authorized two new school buildings at a special meeting held on November 14, 1922. One building was slated for the Huntington village area and the other for Huntington Station (which was later named Lincoln Elementary School and erected on 9th Avenue adjacent to St. Hugh of Lincoln Roman Catholic Church.)
L.M. Neckermann Co. of 103 Park Avenue, New York was the low bidder for the general construction contract to build Woodbury Avenue Grade School and the brick building went up over parts of 1923 and 1924. It cost $169,870 for basic construction. S.H Sweeney of Manhattan submitted a winning bid of $28,000 for heating and ventilation, Pierre Olsen of Huntington was awarded a $9,000 bid for plumbing and Casino Electric Co. of Manhattan was approved to provide $4,000 worth of electrical work. The school was formally dedicated during a ceremony held on March 28, 1925.
Stately and Majestic Building
The stately and majestic design utilized by architects was common for that era and Woodbury Avenue Grade School, which was built on about three acres (the Huntington School Board later secured several small adjacent parcels adding a total of another half-acre), featured an auditorium with folding chairs, a slightly sunken gymnasium, fireplaces in some kindergarten rooms and the general feeling that this was a building that could stand for a century or more. Simply put, it was built to last forever.
As was typical for that era, teachers smoked in the boiler room. Evening volleyball and basketball activities for men were common. Woodbury’s coal bin held about 165 tons of nut coal and produced about 36 barrels of ashes a week. When the bin was no longer needed, it was converted into a general storage area.
For decades, students either walked to school or were dropped off by their parents. There were no busses to transport the youngsters, nor was there a cafeteria program. Instead, the school offered students crackers and milk. Prior to construction, a small stream came down the hills located at the rear of the property and formed a pond where the school was eventually built. In photos taken during the years Woodbury was in operation, those hills looked as if they were in a constant state of erosion.
Woodbury students and their parents enjoyed particularly close relationships with the school’s teachers and regular physical and social activities kept the group tight knit. Students came from as far as Lloyd Harbor and Centerport, but most lived in and around the village. The first PTA was organized by Mrs. Russell F. Sammis. The PTA helped establish the school’s first library.
After the seventh and eighth grades departed for Robert K. Toaz Junior High School in 1939, Woodbury Avenue School enrolled about 350 students per year. (Named after Huntington’s first superintendent of schools, Toaz was the first junior high school in Suffolk County.)
“It was a great place to go to school,” former 15-year Huntington School Board member Richard McGrath said. He was at Woodbury during the 1960’s and said he loved it. “It was a special place. How many elementary schools have a school reunion?”
Alumni Still Love the School
Woodbury’s alumni held a dinner dance in August 2006 at the Huntington Hilton in Melville. Alumni, former faculty and staff from across the country attended the event and another gathering the next day at Bethpage State Park where the group enjoyed a picnic and softball game. Most of the group is still sad over the school’s demise.
After eight months of research, a 40 member citizens’ advisory committee held a public hearing on Thursday, January 28, 1971 at 8 p.m. in the J. Taylor Finley Junior High School cafeteria and unveiled its plan to redistribute the student population around the district and permanently close Woodbury Avenue School.
The Huntington School Board said the reorganization was necessary due to the phasing out of Lincoln and Finley elementary schools (Finley then housed some elementary students, too), which was planned when the community voted to build Huntington Elementary School on Lowndes Avenue.
Parents and alumni immediately mobilized, held a petition drive that netted 5,000 signatures, commenced a legal action and appealed to the state commissioner of education to try and force the district to hold a public referendum on the closing, all to no avail.
Leased to BOCES and then Sold
Eventually, the school was leased for several years to BOCES, which established the Huntington Learning Center for emotionally disturbed students. After BOCES vacated the premises in the mid-1970’s, the Huntington School District sold the site to the Baptist Church for their use as a school, which they named the Huntington Christian School. The church later sold the property to developers who cleared the land and built a condominium complex that is almost entirely now hidden behind dense trees and shrubs from the sight of passing cars on Woodbury Road.
Jack Abrams, the Huntington School Heritage Museum’s curator at the time and Woodbury’s last principal, raced over to the site when the building was being demolished and secured the original 1923 cornerstone and the copper box that was located inside of it. The box contained an American flag, bible and a 1923 newspaper filled with information about the new school. The artifacts now rest in the district museum’s collection.
With Woodbury Avenue’s fate sealed by the Huntington School Board, former and current employees and students gathered as a group at the school for one last time on June 11, 1971 at 7:30 p.m. Former Woodbury Principal J. Taylor Finley, who was then living in Toms River, New Jersey, sent a letter dated May 27 on behalf of himself and his wife. He wrote: “The closing of Woodbury Avenue School saddens Edith and I very much, too, because we had many interesting and happy years there.”
Although it is no longer standing, Woodbury’s memory survives. Few elementary schools, if any, have as devoted an alumni group as Woodbury Avenue School’s.